As the number of camps and students more than doubles year to year, Heavy Metal Summer Experience cofounder Angie Simon sees real progress in recruitment
By / Jessica Kirby • Photos courtesy of SMACNA Bay Area
It started out as an idea. Deliver hands-on, project-driven training to high school students in a fun, supportive atmosphere, led by professionals. In the first summer that Western Allied Mechanical and Hermanson put that idea to the test, piloting six-week Heavy Metal Summer Experience camps in California and Washington, respectively, they drew an impressive 28 participants. Last year (year two), 11 HMSE camps serving 170 kids popped up around America. And this summer, 22 camps, including Canada’s first, in Lancaster, Ontario, will bring the trades to nearly 400 kids.
Why is the HMSE so successful? Angie Simon, former SMACNA president and CEO of Western Allied, and cofounder of HMSE, says the reason Is simple: “It is so needed,” she says. “We are reaching out to kids who are about to graduate, and they know college isn’t for them. Not only that, but parents are starting to reimagine what their kids’ future might look like. We’ve had so many interested parties over the last three years, I am anticipating close to 50 camps with at least five or six in Canada for the summer of 2024.”
Over the next five years, 40% of the construction workforce will retire. This, on the heels of a record-breaking labor shortage, has contractors in all areas of construction wondering how they are going to get their jobs done. HMSE is one answer.
From the beginning, its focus has been career exploration within the mechanical trades for high school students and recent graduates between 15 and 19 years old. Participants complete projects, work alongside professionals, and learn about local apprenticeship training opportunities. With the intention of expanding and replicating the program across North America, the program organizers have created and continuously update the HMSE Playbook, a how-to manual complete with sample schedules, projects, and pro tips for hosting a camp.
“My challenge to contractors has been to stop talking and start doing something about the labor shortage and looming retirements,” Simon says. “And the results have been remarkable. In each camp you will always get a few who realize the trades aren’t for them, and another few will eventually move on. But even if you get three or four from each camp who start their apprenticeship, that would mean 66 or 88 this summer alone. That is how we make progress.”
The program is spreading like wildfire through word of mouth, especially in underserved communities. It isn’t unusual for kids who show up to write the apprenticeship exam to bring along a friend or relative.
“Getting the kids is always the big challenge for a new area’s first camp,” Simon says. “But if you can deliver the camp when they are 16 or 17 and just about ready to join the workforce, they will tell a friend and it gets bigger every year. The second and third camps are much easier.”
New for 2023, Hermanson in Western Washington, Western Allied in the Bay Area, and Silicone Valley Mechanical in San Jose will be offering an electrical section for the first time. HMSE has been offered a free booth at the National Electrical Contractors’ Association (NECA) Convention in Philadelphia this September, and Simon is hoping that will be a chance to pull in more electrical contractors from different areas.
“Offering electrical means the students get to learn sheet metal, plumbing, and electrical—the full scope,” she says. “We are also revising the HMSE Playbook to include electrical projects, and Western Allied and Hermanson are adding new sheet metal projects.”
So far, the feedback has been great. Contractors usually offer up the camp as a team building exercise for staff, who come out to volunteer their time running the activities. “Once contractors see how exciting and rewarding it is, they love doing it and their staff love the feeling of doing good in their communities,” Simon says. “And it is always amazing how many of the kids graduate interested and eager to consider the trades for a career.”
Moving forward, the HMSE committee will continue looking for partners, without whom the camps would not be possible. Milwaukee Tool and Dewalt, for example, each donated 225 tool bags for this summer’s camps, and Trane, Procore, and Mestek Machinery came forward with large donations.
“NECA, the Mechanical Contractors’ Association of America (MCAA), and SMACNA also continue to be big supporters,” Simon says. “I appreciate the contractors and training centers that have stepped up to run the camps.”
The team’s plan is to keep spreading the word and writing grants, and Simon is looking forward to branching into other areas in the United States and Canada, including Vancouver, BC.
“It has been such a success and a great team effort,” Simon says. “I encourage contractors and training centers to reach out to find out how they can host a camp in their areas. It’s just so rewarding.”
Learn more at | hmse.org
